"wa-ta"

madelyn surprised me by saying water yesterday when i offered her some to drink. she had two versions "wa-wa" and "wa-ta" but it was very clear what she was trying to say.

in related water news, we spent a good portion of tuesday morning and late afternoon in the kiddie pool in the front yard (there is only one spot in the yard that is flat enough for the pool but we get to talk to all of our friends walking by this way). madelyn was having a lot of fun with the hose while the pool was filling up and even liked spraying it at her head - weird. and then in the afternoon she was using her bucket to pour water over the top of her head. she just thought that drenching herself was hysterical. we went through three swim suits too! her bathroom looked like we spent a week at the beach with all the suits and towels hanging up to dry. but it is only fun for so long and then she is ready to go back in the house and play. so we were in and out a few times which called for a few wardrobe changes.

i probably won't post as frequently over the next month because i have a huge project going at work with a september 1 deadline and i just won't have much free time. i only mention this because people start to worry and email/call me when i go a few days without posting. but we are heading to the state fair this weekend and i am sure that there will be some great stories and pictures to share... love.

s is for sunshine

grandma and big pop gave madelyn a book about florida for christmas (i think?). i am pretty sure that it was intended to make her want to visit florida, but it is pretty dry for a children's book so matt and i didn't read it to her after she first got it. basically there is a historic landmark or endangered animal for each letter of the alphabet with all the background/history/definition sort of information in the sidebar - fun, right?

well this week, madelyn has decided (all on her own) that this is her favorite book. she gets it off the shelf all on her own (we even keep it on a higher self). i had to read it to her at least five times - in a row - at nap time before i decided that i couldn't sit through it one more time and moved on to another book (much to maddie's dismay). this is one phase that i hope passes quickly...

last night matt reminded me of another of maddie's new enjoyments - dancing to the washing machine. this was the first time he had seen her do it and called me over to take a look. i have been having her help me load and empty the washer and dryer lately - really, she is very helpful! and once the washer starts madelyn gets to dancing to the washer's rhythm! it is so funny. i don't know why i didn't think to video it before, but here is a little bit from last night. she is on her way to being done, but you get the idea. she just goes in to stand next to the washer and 'dance'. (excuse the clothes everywhere...)

and now for our latest childproofing dilemma - drawers. madelyn can open all the cabinetry drawers. luckily she isn't quite tall enough to see inside of the kitchen drawers yet so there isn't much attraction to opening them. but the bathroom drawers have opened a whole new world of small items to put in her mouth! she doesn't get much time in our bathroom, so it hasn't been too much of a problem. i did have to empty out the drawers in her bathroom though. so now she just opens them to take a look. what is great is that she closes them when she is done - well most of the time any way.

thankfully maddie turned around a disturbing trend in her napping today by sleeping a total of 4-1/2 hours today (morning 1 hour and afternoon 3-1/2 hours). i have been concerned (and worn out) because for about the past 4 or 5 days, madelyn has only been sleeping 2 - 2-1/2 in the afternoon (or morning) instead of her normal 4 hour afternoon nap. that long nap is essential to my survival. essential. it is when i get most of my focused work done and without it i am having to get up earlier and stay up later trying to get everything done - it was starting to wear me out. plus, madelyn needs that 4 hours of sleep a day. and without it she has been a cranky, fussy girl which is that much more exhausting. but like i said, things took a turn for the better today. wish me luck for tomorrow!

and last night went great in the toddler bed and so did her naps today. she didn't switch ends at all so there was no falling out. hopefully, one fall was all it took for her to learn that lesson. love.

converted

after fearing "the thump" every time madelyn is awake in her crib, i decided to go ahead and convert it to a toddler bed last night. once we finish construction in our basement we will probably go ahead and switch her to a twin bed.

madelyn loves her new set-up! while i was attaching the little guard rail she just kept getting on and off the mattress while laughing. so last night i got her all ready for bed (matt was working in the basement) and after reading some books i put her down and told her to get into bed. she climbed on in, hugged bear and i covered her up. there was not another peep (even when i went in to take a picture while she was sleeping). that is until there was a little thump followed by some crying at 2am. i went in to check on her and she was climbing back up into her bed. i just covered her up and she went back to sleep. (she gets a blanket now because i also dropped her sleep sack.)

what was most surprising is that she woke up this morning and still stayed in bed! she must have been in their playing 20 or 30 minutes before matt wanted to go in and check on her. he found her still in her bed. i am guessing that this won't last long, but she did the same thing at nap time. she didn't want to nap (long story) and just stayed in her bed playing/talking with bear.


earlier in the day we went down to the local "river walk" for a saturday morning stroll and stopped at the botanical gardens and then the playground. madelyn really likes flowers and even knows to be gentle with them. if a petal happens to fall off, she tries to put it back until i stick it in my pocket to hide it. she points out the flowers wherever we are - real or not. so she really enjoyed the botanical garden.

as we were starting our walk i was telling matt that last summer there were signs for a free ski show on wednesday nights on the river and that we should see if there are still doing it this summer. and not 10 minutes later we came across a ski team practice! the tricks were much more involved than i had expected. i was just picturing one guy out doing tricks off the ski jump, but this was an almost 20 member team with 4 boats! they were even practicing a pyramid pose on the dock. we will have to check that out soon (and take some pictures). last year the shows were at 7 so that might be a little late for maddie, but it isn't very far from our house so maybe we can make it.


well, maddie just woke up from her nap so i have to run. love.


p.s. this is post #200!

mouth tricks

i managed to get some of maddie's latest tricks on video today. here is she blowing kisses and showing her tongue when i was talking about the cat's tongue in her book.

and this one isn't a mouth trick, but it is a trick that she has been doing for a few weeks and i have just never posted about...

love.

to the zoo again

tuesday morning, after music class, madelyn and i headed off to the zoo for the morning since it was a nice cool, breezy day.

what a huge difference in madelyn since the last time we had gone about a month before! she was so excited! people were even commenting on her excitement as we strolled between exhibits. she was clapping, laughing, banging her hands on the stroller tray, squealing, kicking her feet, and of course smiling as we made our way around. it helped that the animals where the most active i have ever seen them.

we had heard that the animals are more active when the weather is cool, but wow! the elephants were even out and moving around quicker than i had ever seen an elephant move. and we got to be about 5 feet from the giraffes because they do meal time twice a day up on a platform where guests can feed them (it sells out really quickly to do that) and other guests can stand a few feet away and watch. madelyn was pretty still during that part. she kept looking at me to make sure that it was okay for us to be that close. (at least that is what it looked like she was thinking from her expression.)

and then the most surprising part was when we went into the fish 'house'. madelyn asked to get "down" from her stroller. now keep in mind that madelyn screamed and cried while holding on with a death grip the first time we took her to see the fish. then tuesday she was laughing and running up to the tank and pointing at all the different fish. i could not believe how quickly she had overcome this fear. i will definitely make the effort to take her more often now that she enjoys it so much more. and will probably just let her roam free in some of the exhibits since we aren't in a rush and don't have to see the whole place every time.

changing subjects - madelyn really loves her daddy and now that she is getting older (and more obedient) they can do more things together. madelyn goes out with daddy to water the grass and plants in the evening and then they go to get the mail together. well last night matt was working on a permanent baby gate for the top of the deck stairs so that maddie can spend time outside with us when we use the grill and maddie got to help/watch.

aren't they cute? love.

look who's talking!

(i know - lame title, but that's what it feels like.) over the past three days madelyn's vocabulary has more than doubled! and not just words, but she is using them in the correct context. here is a list of her latest words:

"ouch"/"ow" - says it when she falls down or bumps into something

"up"

"truck" - it is more like "tuck", but she says it when she sees a truck in a book or in real life

"go"

"peacock" - actually she only says "cock", but she says it when looking at her zoo book (in the picture) and lifting the peacock flap

"cracker" - more like "cak -ker"

"cookie"

"gone" - she added this one yesterday afternoon, but i got some video this morning. she says it when she is out of food or something gets taken away from her.

she also makes a few animal noises when looking at the zoo book. she lifts the snake flap and goes "hisssss" and lifts the monkey flap to say "oo-oo-oo". she definitely likes the snake noise best! it is so great because she only makes the noise when the flap is open showing all the snakes (they are 'hiding' under some rocks).

she is also trying really hard to say "milk" but it is more like just a "k" sound. she is also saying "ca-ca" a lot and i think that she is trying to say "monkey" because we are usually pointing at some monkeys when she makes the sound. the other one that is a little bit of a stretch is "zebra" - she is saying it "ba-za".

i am trying to pay close attention when she is "speaking" to me because she is definitely trying to tell me something. she has this non-stop stream of babble all day long (well maybe not all day...). she stops when i get the camera, but i am hoping to capture it because i want to be able to remember it.

she has also added the sign for "diaper" on occasion as she heads off to the changing table when i ask her if she wants to change her diaper.

this is just so much fun! i love that she is talking more everyday! love.

got milk?

this week madelyn has been helping me get her milk by pulling the carton out of the refrigerator while i get her cup. as you can guess, some days it is heavier than others. so sometimes she sort of carries it an inch at a time before setting it down to get a better grip. thankfully, she isn't quite strong enough to open the refrigerator by herself. not that she doesn't try really hard! sometimes she will go and get the water dispenser tray and bring it to matt or i as if we had been searching everywhere for it.

she has been helping with meals quite a bit. she really likes to get cans or other food containers out and insists on eating whatever is inside. she carries it to her booster seat and puts it in the seat while she goes back to get me. then she goes back to her seat to get the can and bring it to me. and back and forth and back and forth until i open the can for her - adding signs for "eat" and "more" for emphasis about what she wants. she has also learned how to open the pantry cabinet in the kitchen (in addition to the corner cabinet where we keep canned goods - shown in the picture) and spends dinner prep time emptying everything out that she can reach. every now and then she will start putting things back, but it must be more fun to take it all out.

and she has been eating great! not that maddie has ever been a bad eater, but she is eating her veggies better and pretty much cleaning her plate at meal times - breakfast in particular. she eats about a cup of porridge (today's was rice, yellow split peas, kale, kelp, and brewer's yeast - i know - yuck!), half and avocado, a whole banana, and still signs for "more"! a few grapes or other fruit usually get her full enough that she asks to get "down" - literally.

more about her new words in my next post! love.

sort things out

many (many) times a day, madelyn will go and get her shape sorter and bring it to me. she wants me to lift the lid so that she can take out one piece (occasionally two) to put back inside. the funniest part to me is that she shows no satisfaction from correctly inserting a piece, but gets extremely frustrated if she can't get it to go in quickly (or if i don't let her get another piece quickly enough). even though she does the rectangle over and over in this video, she can do all of the other shapes too. the video is a little long but i didn't want to edit it down and be accused of taking out all the times she couldn't do it or something. plus, i think that the time between correct completions is entertaining as well. so if you have the time, take a look at my little shape sorter...

obviously i am very easily entertained. and like i said we do this a lot. love.

its bob!

madelyn has always loved her veggietales "God made you special" book. she will let you read it to her over and over again. and it was one of the first books that she could 'pick out' on the bookshelf when it was story time (now we have collected many more veggietales books to work into the rotation). she gets so excited when you open the book and there is bob - the tomato - (and larry - the cucumber). her love of veggietales has really been handy since they have dvds and a tv show. i used to clip her fingernails when she fell asleep after nursing, but when she outgrew that veggietales was the only thing that would keep her attention long enough for me to clip her nails (some days i had to do one hand at a time).

and then when i started weaning her i found that veggietales was the perfect distraction while she was drinking her milk from her cup instead of nursing. (speaking of weaning - i am super, super, super excited to say that madelyn is 100% weaned!! i am getting to sleep in for the first time in over a year tomorrow morning! if i sleep until 8am it will be a wonderful indulgence.)

she gets most excited about bob, but she also really likes larry and junior. and today when i started the tv show up for her milk snack (i dvr it so that we always have it when we need it) she pointed and said "bob"! (the intro to the show is just bob singing at first.) so i rewound it and got the camera. love.

birthday "boon"

today i had playgroup at our house with a belated maddie birthday cake. it wasn't really a birthday party, but it sort of ended up being one anyway. we had around 15 kids (and moms too) in all come over to splash with us outside. the weather cooperated too because it wasn't too hot out for those of us who had to supervise and couldn't benefit from splashing around in the cool (as in cold) kiddie pool or sprinkler.

we had a kiddie pool, sprinkler, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and sponges to play with outside and the sponges were a huge hit! they were fun in the pool, to use as stamps on the driveway, and even served as erasers for the sidewalk chalk. not bad considering it was $1 for six of them!

here are some more pictures from our gathering today:

and my pride and joy (besides madelyn) was the cake. i made it from scratch (icing too) and it was the first time that i had ever attempted that. why? because i am a glutton for punishment. i was up until midnight last night making it and then iced it today. thankfully it turned out pretty well. isn't it pretty? i wasn't going to have everyone sing (since it wasn't really a birthday party), but they insisted. madelyn couldn't have cared less about the singing or the cake. she just stuffed her face with the fruit in front of her - especially the strawberries. i don't think she even had any of the cake. at least the other kids liked it and they all enjoyed blowing out the lone candle.

one of the neighbors brought maddie a birthday balloon. now madelyn, like most kids, always notice the balloons at the grocery store or really anywhere we are out and about. and since she loves to ask "what's that?" she gets to hear "balloon" a lot. i thought that i heard her say "boon" when pointing at a balloon this weekend, but just let it go since she has been saying a lot of words lately and not repeating them again (for example, i was telling her "happy" while pointing at a smilely face and she said "happy" clear as a bell but not since). but today there was no denying that she was trying to say "balloon". here is video of her playing with said "boon" and if you listen closely you can hear her say it when she points. (i am sorry that you can't see her face since her excited face was so so cute!) love.

spoons and fashionista

i guess madelyn has just been doing a lot of things that words cannot explain. here are some more videos for your enjoyment. the first is of her eating. i have let her feed herself with a spoon many times before, but this was only the second attempt at letting her "dip" it in the bowl herself. i admit that i did help her get some bigger scoops, but most of her yogurt she fed herself - very, very slowly. i started with the thin handled spoon but got the toddler spoon when she wanted to try it. bowl of the spoon was so deep that she could hardly get any of the yogurt out so i gave her the smaller spoon which she obviously preferred. please note that she is eating as a 'lefty'...

this next video isn't that exciting, but i heard madelyn get up on the couch and into the magazines on the side table and had to see what she was up to so quietly. i thought that it was so cute to see her turning the pages of the magazine with an "ooo" as she looks at all the 'fashions'. she did this for a while before starting to get a little too rough with the pages towards the end of the clip. maybe her interest is from all those trips to the mall to walk around this winter...

love.

the power of packaging

madelyn is addicted to gerber "yogurt melts". we discovered them on our recent trip to florida and may bring a whole case of them on our flight to california in a few weeks. seriously. they are that powerful. we try not to give maddie too many of these "sweet" types of foods because she eats her "healthy" food so well we don't want her to sway to the sweets like her mommy. but in a must cooperate situation (like an airplane) they are extremely useful!

i have discovered another benefit to her addiction - the yellow bag. madelyn wouldn't touch her raisins so i went to get the bag and she started signing for "more" (remember that she uses that sign for "eat"). so i pulled some from the bag and put them on her plate. she gobbled them up and signed for "more"! it took me a minute to figure out what had changed, but then it came to me - the yellow bag! i am going to look for more healthy foods that come in yellow bags and exploit her illiteracy as long as i can.

we had a few more firsts today. madelyn has learned how to open the screen door and let herself out on the deck to be with the dogs. so we won't be leaving the sliding glass doors open for air any more. before she did that though i realized that she was trying to give the dogs "kisses". she has never tried to kiss anything but people before and usually at our request, so this was defiantly a first. we have always told her that the dogs are giving her "kisses" when they are licking her all over so that she doesn't get scared when they are double teaming her (all the time) and i guess she put it together that she could "kiss" them back. lady licked the screen and then maddie put her mouth in its open "o" for kisses on the screen in return. and then she would do it on request so of course i got it on video.

next is her riding her horse. its long and is mainly for the grandparents. enjoy!

love.

best boosted

madelyn loves her booster seat. now she can see better when sitting in a kitchen chair. of course, she has already figured out how to climb up in it all by herself. just to make eating at the big table a little more fun i also put her food on a tray today - she really liked that treat. i have been starting to introduce more bowls and plates into her meal routine instead of just eating off the flat tabletop and it has been going really well. she actually puts the plate/bowl/tray back down on the table when i tell her to and she hasn't dumped anything on the floor - yet.

we tried the booster at the table and with its little tray attachment. i haven't decided which is going to be best yet. she is still about an inch too low to actually eat comfortably from serving dishes on the table. but either way she is much happier than in the highchair and i don't have to try bending her legs in ways they don't bend to get her in it.

today we went to morgan's 4th birthday party. madelyn enjoyed swinging with the birthday girl, playing in the sandbox and getting into the drink buckets - for the ice. morgan just learned how to swing by herself and this picture is during the first time she ever "pumped". it was so sweet how proud she was about it. every time someone new would get there she would scream out their name and ask them to come and see her "pump". she was also wearing two birthday hats which didn't really stand up to the swinging wind and ended up on the back of her head instead of on top. her birthday party was delayed because "baby andrew" (her new little brother) wanted to come. isn't that cute? i thought that it was very cleaver on the part of her parents as a way to put off a birthday party that should have come right around the due date.

of course, madelyn had to wear a "party dress" to the birthday party today. and i just loved this brown with white polka dot dress! this was the first time she wore it and i thought that she looked pretty cute.

i would be lying if i didn't say that dresses are one of my favorite parts of maddie walking. now that she is upright all the time she can wear all the dresses that have just been hanging in her closet because they were too long to crawl in. i just think that the cutest thing is a toddler in a dress. not to mention they make diaper changes much quicker! not that i am super girly or anything, but a dress might be the only advantage women have over men. we have a lot more personal upkeep, but we can wear the simplest garment ever - the dress. there is no coordinating an outfit, you just throw it on and go. guys need at least two pieces (at least to be socially acceptable). love.

bumps and bruises

madelyn continues to try and disfigure her face. i don't know how she manages to always land on her face, but she does. again and again and again. this picture is blurry, but it was the best of the bunch (she doesn't sit still very much). she currently has at least four bruises on the middle of her forehead, a new injury under her left eye (new today), and a fading bruise on her right cheek. matt was joking that we aren't going to be able to leave the house because from a distance she looks filthy and up close she looks like she needs protection! luckily her injuries tend to fade quickly otherwise her face would look a lot worse. it is just where she collects her injuries.

another bruise collection is on her left shin (again sorry that the picture is a little blurry). she used to get them from crawling on the fireplace, but she isn't crawling any more and they are still there. i figured out their source the other day - her highchair. her legs are too long to get in it any more so she hits her shin. so this weekend we are upgrading her to a booster seat. she has been eating most of her meals sitting at the table on a kitchen chair for the past week anyway. i am excited about this transition more than matt, but now we will all be able to sit at the table for dinner! woo-hoo!

today madelyn figured out how to open the hinged closet doors. she has been casually trying door knobs and handles since she could first reach them a few months ago, but this was the first time she was able to get a door larger than a kitchen cabinet open. luckily she was just like - look what i can do - and then moved on.

another activity for the day was getting out madelyn's pool. i had a really difficult time finding a flat part of the yard to set it up in, but we finally got it ready for some play. the little girl next door (i think that she is going into third grade) came over to splash with maddie a little bit - which maddie loved! the pool was a lot bigger than i thought that it would be so next time we might have to invite a few friends over so maddie doesn't feel so lonely. as a bonus, i was able to get video of her saying "what's that?" enjoy.

lastly, here are a few of my favorite shots from madelyn's chaotic photo shoot with her cousins at jcp. love.

i love this one because madelyn is holding the candle like a cigarette and it just cracked me up!

snuggle bugs

i don't know where it came from, but maddie and i share "snuggle bugs". basically i squat down to her height and say "snuggle bugs" while spreading my arms out real wide. maddie breaks out a big smile and 'runs' into my arms where i gather her up in a great big bear hug while twisting back and forth saying "snuggle bugs, snuggle bugs, snuggle bugs". this usually makes us both laugh. i am trying to get her to do it with her daddy too, but for now this is something just for us. love.

this and that

okay, so last month i mentioned that madelyn was asking "what's that". shortly afterwords she stopped doing it as much. however, now its a different story! not only does she ask "what's that?" all day, but she has added "what's this?" into the rotation. and i am loving every minute of it! sometimes it is difficult to know what she is asking about because she points and sometimes she is pointing as something at a distance that could be any number of items.

it was fun today at the grocery store. she would point and say "what's that?" and i would have to quickly come up with a response without loosing track of what i was actually looking for - and i did loose track, several times.

to go with the questions and pointing is that she can point to things we ask about too. when we read books before nap time (daddy does bedtime) i can ask her "where's the dog?" and she can point to it! this makes story time that much more fun for me. and she must like it too because when we get to the end of the book she turns it back to the front cover for me to read it and quiz her again. (and if i don't quiz her she starts pointing and asking "what's that?") i am working on getting this on video. so far i have only gotten like one second because she looses focus when i get the camera.

her comprehension is getting really great too. i can ask her if she wants her diaper changed and she will go to the changing table in her room, tell her that it is bath time and she will head to the tub, when she wants milk she signs "milk" until i tell her yes, lets go get it and then she heads to the refrigerator, and last when i ask her if she is hungry she heads to the highchair and starts to climb. i think that she has climbed all the way up into the highchair at least seven times in the past two days. she just climbs up (silent as a cat) and signs for "more" when i find her. that is her sign for "eat" - we're still working on it.

back to the climbing into the highchair - well, i need more pictures. i will post more about that tomorrow. (the picture is a clue...)

she is also getting really good at her sign language - well, i am biased. she has added "daddy" to her signs. we were watching her baby einstein "first signs" dvd this afternoon (well she was watching while i made dinner for one of the neighbors) for the first time in a few months and she was trying to sign along (that is where the "daddy" dvd showed up today). when they came to the "eat" part, maddie signed "more". it gets her what she wants, so why learn the right sign, right? love.

post office purse

madelyn got a post office play set for her birthday from one of the neighbors (thanks, tina). it lights up, makes animal noises with figurines placed correctly in the right spot (eagle, horse, and snail - yes, snail), and sings the alphabet - with a play on letters (alphabet) and letters (mail).

madelyn carried it all day the first day she got it and pretty much plays with it before all her other toys each morning. well for the past two days she has been looping her arm through it and carrying it like a purse. it is hysterical! she carries it all over the house like its a handbag. every now and then she takes it off her arm to just carry it, but within a few seconds she has it tucked into her elbow again on her way.

i always say that madelyn is "our boy" because she is so physical (notice the large bruise in the middle of her forehead), climbs everything in sight, collects sticks and rocks, and the list goes on. but, this instinct to loop her post office on like a purse suggests that i might be wrong. maybe she is a girly, girl (please know that i am gasping in horror because that was my biggest fear about having a girl)!

either way we will love her. love.

just like mommy

i was on the phone this evening while getting dinner ready and maddie went into my office. she does this often since we spend most of the day in there and she has some of her favorite toys in the room. as soon as i saw her i ran back from my camera.

you can't really tell from the video how much it truly looked like she was working at the computer, but when i first went in she had her hands correctly on the keyboard and was 'typing' away. she was even looking up at the screen and then reaching her right hand out to move the mouse every now and then - just like mommy. by the time i took the video she had put the mouse up on the keyboard so the 'typing' wasn't as good.

while i thought it was super cute and got the camera so that i could share. i quickly closed the keyboard drawer up and took the chair away so that she wouldn't hurt anything (or think that it was okay to use mommy's computer).

the other part of this that occurred to me as i sat down to post tonight is that it is a little sad. this is how she sees mommy all day (except that i don't sit on my knees in the chair). it is difficult to keep balance in my life with work, and maddie, and matt, and everything else (not in that order at all), but i know that it is what i have to do so i do it. i love my job, but it does take me away from maddie in many ways. i am physically with her all day, but mentally i can only give her a limited amount of my attention. i think that people don't realize that part. in order to get in 40 hours - at least - a week, its not like maddie and i are just hanging out at home having a grand 'ole time. i am working, just like if i was in an office.

i am not as sad as this sounds (not that i haven't been from time to time), but looking at her imitate me like this tonight made me kind of sad and i felt the need to share. truthfully, it is impressive that she did it so well! and she didn't want to stop when i picked her up off the chair - she just kept reaching trying to get back down. well enough of that! love.

the joys of travel

on our last day in florida we headed back to orlando for our flight. since our flight wasn't until the evening we were able to meet our friend jenny for lunch. jenny was the first of our out-of-state friends to meet madelyn when she was just a few weeks old last summer.


after lunch with jenny we went back to the park that we had gone to earlier in the week to let maddie stretch her legs after the long ride and high chair contained lunch. then back in the car as we headed to the airport.


finally, we were headed home! it was a wonderful trip, but we were all tired and ready for the routine that comes from going back to your own home. our flight was at 7 so we knew that we needed "bear" if we had any chance of maddie falling asleep on the plane.


the flight was 2-1/2 hours and maddie squirmed and screamed the first hour and a half. its not that she was bad. she just didn't want to sit still and was really tired. it didn't help that it was really warm on the plane - her whole head was really sweaty - and that it was packed. luckily the guy next to us was pretty nice and across the aisle was a teenage boy traveling with his four younger siblings. he spent a lot of time saying "hi" back to maddie when she waved. we finally got her to sleep by showing her pictures on our phone while she held "bear" and sucked her thumb. keeping her asleep was the real trick. like i said, she was pretty sweaty and hot which only made me hotter and more uncomfortable. plus she is really tall which meant that her head was in the aisle, her legs were on matt's lap, and i couldn't move at all. i did finally find a way to rest my arm under her head on the armrest, but it wasn't comfortable. and every time someone came down the asile i had to lift her head out of the way and she would startle awake and cry but then drift back to sleep.


all and all, it could have been much worse, but it definitely was not an easy flight for us. we are not looking forward to our 6 hour flight to california in a few weeks. we are excited for the destination - its the getting there that is going to be the trick...

love.

fourth of july - splash, laugh, boom

we spent our fourth of july at grandma and big pop's. again the big kids (those of us over 24) played wii all day and the girls were kept busy when they weren't sleeping.

my friend lindsey (pictured with maddie) stopped by in the morning for a visit. we had tried to catch up with her in orlando but she was out of town. thankfully, she was headed down to fm for the 4th too so we just met up there!

after some lunch the girls hit the kiddie pool outside. maddie wore her third bathing suit of the week and still had two more that never made it into the water. she really liked the kiddie pool - especially the splashing! here she is getting started with annabell.

after dinner we decided to show the girls their first fourth of july "pops" - well grandma and daddy decided that maddie needed to see them. the best part was that matt's box was a total dud, but maddie still enjoyed them immensely. it was almost as if she was laughing at daddy for not being able to make them go "pop".

doesn't maddie look so patriotic in this picture? i didn't even notice the flag in the background until i was downloading the pictures off the camera when we got home. maddie couldn't quite make it until the real fireworks started, but thankfully she slept through the show that her uncles were setting off in the backyard. if the bugs weren't eating me alive i am sure that i would have enjoyed watching it. i do not miss the insects in florida at all!

even with the bugs, it was a pretty great day.

happy fourth from our gang! love.

beach baby

hurray! this is the day i was most excited for on this trip - madelyn's first trip to the beach! i spent a lot of my life at the beach and i couldn't wait to take maddie. she immediately enjoyed the sticks and coconut shell she found in her first few steps (she is holding the coconut shell in the picture). just like lakes park the day before, it took her a little bit to warm up to all that water. we took her out to sanibel island and went to the lighthouse beach (not sure it that is its actual name or not). i thought that it would be nicer to take her to out there (as opposed to fort myers beach) because it would be less crowded and there would be lots of shells for her to find. once she got used to the waves, she sat down at the water's edge, but you can see how a big wave takes her breath away a little.

madelyn also enjoyed playing in the wet sand. she hasn't been a huge fan of sandboxes so i wasn't sure how this was going to go and was relieved that she had gotten over her sand phobia. we played at the beach for about 2-1/2 hours before calling it a day so that we could get maddie home for her nap.

after getting maddie all situated matt and i headed back out to sanibel to stay in the hotel we honeymooned in almost 7 years ago. we had arranged to stay out there for a night as an early anniversary present to each other. luckily we had managed to drop madelyn's evening nursing earlier in the trip and only had the morning one to worry about. but grandma said that she did great in the morning once she realized that i wasn't there and she was going to have to have her milk from the refrigerator. matt and i had a great time reliving our honeymoon by biking all over the island and walking up and down the beach at low tide that night. unfortunately after getting up with maddie every day for a year i was not able to sleep past 7:30 even though i really, really wanted to...

love.

pump it up and lakes park

on tuesday we went to "pump it up" to meet up with two of my 'blogger' friends from high school and their kids and husbands. kellie and becky did a great job of documenting the day if you want to get their takes on our play date. abby and annabell joined us in the fun too. grandma z. climbed through everything with annabell and matt did the duties with madelyn. i think grandma is still recovering from the outing! with all the inflatable equipment it was surprising that maddie was most interested in the plastic cars. apparently they are the 'hot' item with all the kids and they have about four of them to share. maddie and annabell ended up pushing each other around until maddie tried to get in with her and slid all the way through to become roadkill. in the video she thinks she is pushing a little boy in the car until she can't keep up and has to 'walk' on her knees in order to keep hanging on.




after about an hour of this everyone involved was exhausted! so back to grandma's and big pop's for a nap - well the girls napped - the adults played wii fit. for anyone who has not yet experienced the joys of the wii fit (or the wii itself) we highly recommend it! the hula hooping kept us all rolling with laughter all week.

anyway, once the girls were up we were back on the road. this time we were headed to lakes park with big pop joining us. believe it or not, this was maddie's first time in a bathing suit! i never thought that a child of mine would make it all the way through their first year of life without wearing a bathing suit, but i guess i never thought i would live in wisconsin either. (grandma and big pop got her the suit for this visit.) maddie took a little bit to warm up to the water coming at her from every direction but then really had a great time walking all around and trying to take everything in. she and annabell both liked a water gun type of feature there (guess which child is from wisconsin...).


big pop had fun showing the girls all the water falls around the two play areas. madelyn didn't really get into the waterfall features. she was more comfortable with the water coming up from the ground or that turned on and off; the constant flow intimidated her a little. but give the kid a break, the only time she had seen more than a cup of water at a time was in the bathtub.


in true florida style, a storm started to move in so we had to wrap up our fun in the sun. love.